This invention relates generally to a washcloth for cleansing the body and, more particularly, to a disposable washcloth having a mildly abrasive surface and containing an antiseptic skin cleansing agent suitable for hospital use.
Paper products in sheet form and of a variety of compositions are increasingly being used for cleansing hospital patients in place of more conventional washcloths made of towel-like fabric woven from natural fibers, such as cotton. However, when washing a bed-ridden patient with such paper products, of which the "Handi-Wipe" cloth is an example, the nurse is faced with the problem of how to apply soap or other cleansing agent to the wetted cloth, since one hand usually is being used to prop up the person being washed; needless to say, both hands are needed, one to hold the cloth and the other to rub the wetted cloth with a bar of soap or to pour a quantity of liquid detergent onto the wetted cloth. It would be of great convenience to users of such cloths if the step of applying a cleansing agent to the wetted cloth could be eliminated.
Moreover, washcloths made of paper are extremely soft when wet and lack the abrasion needed for effective removal of soil from the skin, particularly from the skin of a bed-ridden patient who must be bathed with a cloth. As a consequence, nurses often go back to using the somewhat more abrasive toweling material, if available, for both washing and drying the patient's skin Such cloth towels usually are not disposable, however, instead being laundered after each use, thereby introducing an element of cost which might be avoided by utilizing disposable paper washcloths. Accordingly, there is a need for a disposable washcloth having a mildly abrasive surface, and desirably also containing a cleansing agent, so as to be capable of effectively cleansing soil from a person's skin.